All morning long, The K-EARTH 101 Morning Show was taking listener calls for the best, wildest, craziest birth story to win a special Mother’s Day prize package. In between listener calls, Gary Bryan explained the origin behind Paul McCartney’s band and how he came up with the name ‘Wings.’

Turns out the name was spawned from Sir Paul’s own near-heartbreaking birth story of his second child with wife, Linda.

Paul explained the inspiration behind the band’s name in the 2001 made-for-TV special Wingspan, saying there was “a bit of drama” during the birth of the couple’s second child together, Stella, in September of 1971.

As the story goes, Linda experienced complications during labor with the child that almost caused both to die, so Paul sat down and prayed in the hospital. He revealed that he had a vision of wings during his prayer, and thankfully in the end, everything with mom and baby turned out okay.

After the ordeal, Paul then decided to pay tribute to the vision and name his band Wings.

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney and Wings went on to release a series of hit albums (five of which went to No. 1 in the US), including the group’s most influential No.1 release Band On The Run.

Today (May 7th), in fact, marks the release of his greatest hits album that shares the same name as the TV special Wingspan. The album features 40 tracks spanning from Paul’s early solo career and classics as performed by Wings. Paul McCartney himself even tweeted about the album’s anniversary: